European steel re-rollers oppose sanctions on slab imports from Russia

The European Steel Re-roller Consortium which includes Marcegaglia, Pittini, Officine Technosider, Laminoirs des Landes, Vitkovice Steel, Network Steel, Duferco, Dunaferr and NLMK Belgium Holdings (NBH), announced on 26 September, that they are not in favour of the European Commission's decision on imposing sanctions on the Russian slab imports.

Historically, about 80% of the EU's semi-finished steel is imported from Russia and Ukraine. During January-July 2022, the EU imported 2.4 million tonnes (mnt) of slab from Russia - down 200,000 tonnes (t) from the same period of last year.

As per some re-rollers:"It is difficult to find an alternative to restricting imports of Russian slabs and there are limitations only with producers in Iran and Americas."

In the third week of September, slab export offers from Russia stood at around $430-440/t FOB. For Turkey, export offers for November sales are at $510/t CFR while that for December sales are around $500/t CIF. Notably, these offers are attractive in comparison with the Indian and Brazilian offers at $580-600/t CFR.

Russia's slab export offers for Europe have not been disclosed. However, from India, the offers are at around $600/t CIF. From Brazil, these are around $620/t CIF. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Iran offers stand at $540-550/t CFR based on arrival at the Mediterranean Sea.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between SteelDaily and SteelMint.